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Dessert

Apple Indian Pudding

A pudding made with Indian meal, apples, molasses, butter, spices, and milk, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Indian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. Scald the milk and gradually pour it over the Indian meal in a double boiler.

  2. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep pudding dish.

  2. Add molasses, butter, spices, and apples to the mixture.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with cream or milk if there are leftovers.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Nutmeg + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens the milk into a stiff, pudding-like body as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color that browns during the long bake.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornmeal cooks and sets into during baking.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart fruitiness that balances the sweet molasses.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cornmeal to the milk gradually. Pouring the scalded milk over the meal slowly, while stirring, keeps the cornmeal from clumping into lumps. Cooking it in a double boiler and stirring often prevents scorching and gives an even, smooth thickening.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, ginger, nutmeg, milk):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, ginger, nutmeg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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